Fly to Australia and NZ in British Airways Club World from £1,700 …. out of Norway

If British Airways has cancelled your £1,300 ‘mistake fare’ First Class ticket to Sydney, there is an alternative ….

On Thursday I mentioned some of the exceptional sale prices that British Airways is offering out of Dublin, including Hawaii for £1,200 and New York for under £1,000, all in Club World.

There is also an excellent deal to Australia currently available.  This is not actually part of the sale – it seems to be something unique to the Norwegian market.

You can book a Club World (flat bed business class) return ticket to Sydney for roughly £1,700.  For a small supplement, it also works to Auckland and Christchurch and presumably other cities in Australia and New Zealand.

Here are the headline fare rules:

You need to start in Norway – Oslo, Bergen or Stavanger

You must book by September 7th

You must travel outbound by June 19th 2016

You can have two stopovers but they must not exceed two days and will cost €200 each (plus you would be charged extra Air Passenger Duty if you stopped over in London for more than 24 hours)

If you are purely interested in tier points there are some crazy routings allowed – Oslo to Auckland lists, if you dig out the full fare rules via ITA Matrix, 261 permitted routings!  I assume that few HFP readers will want to do that, especially as stopovers are restricted to two days.

The easiest way to get this to price is via ba.com.  Use the multi-city tool if you want to take a circuitous route.  Expedia also has a multi-city option and may throw up different options.  You will NOT see this fare available every day so you may need to play around a bit.

It does exist, though.

I tried Christchurch in February and got a price of £1,902.  This was routed to Sydney as per my first example with an additional Qantas connection (as a BA codeshare) over to New Zealand.

Remember that you MUST start your trip in Norway – you cannot simply hop on at Heathrow.  Your flight will have been permanently cancelled by then.

You should also take the last leg back to Norway, as BA appears to be clamping down on passengers who skip the last legs on ex-EU routings.  That is a small price to pay for what is a fantastic fare.

In terms of tier points, remember that booking the direct London – Sydney service (keeping the same flight number) means you lose out.  It is treated as one flight and awards 240 tier points each way.  If you have a clean break in Singapore, you would get 160 + 140 = 300 tier points each way for the long haul segments.  Going via Hong Kong would get you 140 + 140 = 280 tier points each way.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.